Noah
Samuel had just dropped me off at the front of the house with my briefcase and a bouquet of flowers for my girl in hand. I stared in confusion when I noticed we had a visitor, and I knew for a fact it wasn’t Dez. David Stone’s Viper was parked in plain sight, and for just a moment, my mind flashed back to the day I had found him ass-f*cking my would-be fiancée in my bathroom.
All I could think was, Please, not her.
My knuckles tightened around the bouquet in my hand until my senses brought me back to the fact that Lanie wasn’t that slut Julie and she would never do anything of the sort to me.
Still, the fear was there. Had I let my guard down only to be f*cked over again?
Haunted by the desolation that replayed like a wavy vinyl disc under the needle of an old phonograph, I found it hard to force my feet forward. It was as if they had been fastened down with cement blocks to the rocky bottom of a murky river, cutting off the freedom required to swim to the surface for a much-needed breath of air. My heart was giving me a pep talk like a motherf*cker, but the agony over the possibility that Lanie could have fallen under David’s mysterious spell overshadowed the trust I had given to her so easily. What the f*ck did women see in him?
I was bitch-slapped out of my morbid thoughts when a bellow came from somewhere inside the house.
“You bitch!” It was David’s voice, outraged and laced in venom.
The bouquet and my briefcase tumbled to the ground at the next sound, and the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
Lanie’s scream was a desperate plea, and I took the front steps in giant leaps. Without a second thought, I threw myself against the door, my body numb to the pain I should’ve felt in my frantic attempt to get to her.
The violent scene was displayed before me; my girl had obviously been knocked to the ground by that piece of shit motherf*cker. Her cheek had a huge bruise beginning to rise, and it was obvious that a heavy hand had landed there mere seconds before. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her eyes were squeezed shut.
He put his f*cking hands on my girl!
My heart was seized by a myriad of emotions that seemed to take on a life of their own. As they took shape, a full spectrum of colors clouded my eyesight and rendered me helpless to the maniacal beast that lay dormant within. Horrific greens morphed into sodden blues of terror. Violent midnight shifted to an outraged orange consumed by disgust until my vision was inflamed with a demonic red that burned white-hot with the intensity of rage. And then finally everything went black with the vengeance every microscopic cell in my body needed to claim.
“Get the f*ck off her!” I barely registered my own movement before I had David’s clothes clenched in my fists and had thrown him across the room, away from my girl. Lanie looked up at me, and everything inside screamed for me to provide the comfort I knew she needed, but the driving force to make David pay for what he had done won the battle.
Fury consumed me until I was possessed with no control over my own body. Fists were thrown and connected, my back was slammed against a wall, and then Lanie leaped across the room and landed on David’s back. It was when he swatted her away like she was nothing but an insignificant gnat that I snapped like a rubber band that had been stretched beyond its limit. I’d had enough of wrestling around with him like two scrawny boys grappling for dominance on a school playground. I was out for blood. I meant to beat him to a pulp until the very life force that kept the pathetic excuse for a human being alive was sucked out of him.
And I almost did. I was on him, hovering over him just as menacingly as he’d been hovering over my girl, punch after punch connecting with that slimeball’s face. I could hear his bones cracking under my fists, a sound I found quite pleasing to the ear.
It was pure instinct that told me when I’d succeeded. David lay motionless on the floor, barely breathing. I shook out the sharp bolts of pain that shot from my hand and up my arm, not giving two shits about it, because it was worth it. Then, like a gravitational pull, I turned toward Lanie. Every trace of anger suddenly dissipated when I saw her face.
She needed me, and nothing would stop me from going to her.
“Are you okay, kitten?” I knelt beside her and looked her over for further injuries.
Her face had been blank and then suddenly, tears streamed unabated as the gravity of the situation came crashing down on her. She reached out and clutched my shirt in her hands, burying her face in my chest and sobbing uncontrollably.
“Shh, shh, shh.” I did my damnedest to soothe her as I cradled her in my arms. “I know, kitten. It’s okay. I’m here now, and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
I meant it. With my dying breath, I f*cking meant it.
We sat there like that for a little longer, Lanie crying and holding on to me like she was scared I might leave her at any moment, and me doing my best to console her. I had failed her. I’d promised to protect her and I’d failed. I should’ve been there, should’ve somehow sensed David’s intentions. I knew he hated me, and I knew he would try to seduce her, but to try to rape her? It became evident that I’d never really known the man I used to call my best friend, and that made me even more disgusted.
I heard shuffling from behind me just before David made for the door like a bat out of hell. I’d be damned if I was going to let the motherf*cker get away with an ounce of life still in him. I pushed Lanie away and tried to get to my feet, but she wouldn’t let me go.
“No, you can’t!” she yelled, desperately holding on to my shirt and preventing me from chasing after him.
“He’s getting away.” I tried to pull her hands loose, but she kept clinging to me.
It was her death grip on my face that forced me to look at her. Black mascara streaked down her cheeks and her eyes were puffy, wide—like she was trying to get me to see something she knew, but I wasn’t quite grasping. “He knows, Noah. He knows everything.”
I froze, stiff as a twelve-point buck that had just heard a twig snap in an otherwise still forest.
“What …” My voice was caught in my throat and I had to clear it before I could go on. “What does he know? What are you saying, Lanie?”
“Everything. He knows about the auction, the contract, how much you paid for me, everything.”
I clenched my teeth together and breathed deeply through my nose. “I don’t care. He’s not getting away with this shit.” I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and started to dial.
“Who are you calling?”
“The police.”
She shook her head back and forth frantically and put her hand over the phone. “No, Noah, please. You’ll lose everything.”
“Nothing is more important than you! Nothing!” I snapped, and she flinched at my words. I hadn’t meant to take it out on her, but I was just so f*cking irate.
I gathered her into my arms and held her to my chest, stroking her hair as I kissed her forehead over and over again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I said, rocking her back and forth. I pulled back and cupped her face in my hands, trying to get through to her. “Lanie, baby, he put his hands on you …”
Lanie pulled my hands from her face and held them in her lap. “I know what he did, but he didn’t get to really hurt me because you stopped him, Noah. You stopped him.”
Dear God, she was trying to comfort me. “He put his f*cking hands on you, and I can’t … I just can’t.” I could feel the vise around my heart squeeze tighter. I dropped my gaze, no longer able to look into the innocent face of the woman I had failed.
Lanie pushed her fingers through the hair at my temples and lifted my chin so that I had to look at her again. “You listen to me, Noah Crawford. This was not your fault. There was no way you could’ve known he would do that, so don’t you dare start blaming yourself.”
I started to protest, but she put her finger over my lips to silence me. “I’m fine. But if we call the police, everyone will know—and my parents can’t deal with something like this, Noah. My mom just had a heart transplant. Do you really think she could handle knowing what almost happened to me? And my father would kill him. You’ll lose your company, my father will be in prison, and that, along with knowing what I did, would probably make the heart transplant my mother received be all for nothing. I can’t do that to them. No, we have to be smart about this.”
Delaine Talbot never ceased to amaze me. In the face of the unspeakable evil that had befallen her, she was still thinking about everyone else. Never had a more selfless person existed in this f*cked-up thing we called life. I didn’t deserve her.
And of course, she was right. As much as it pained me to let David go, I knew we had to regroup and figure out what to do.
“Okay,” I relented with a helpless sigh. “We’ll do it your way.”
I took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm, content on just having that. But when I tried to pull away, she climbed into my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck, her lips melting against mine. It wasn’t a kiss that was meant to go further. It was simply a kiss that conveyed the love that we shared, the love that even that coward David Stone couldn’t tarnish.
Later that evening, we were in the entertainment room, not really watching the outrageously expensive television that was playing Lord of the Rings. I was aware that knowing every line to the movie probably made me a geek, but so the f*ck what? It calmed me down, even if it didn’t take my mind off things entirely. That would be an impossible task.
I was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms that I happened to keep around the house in case I had visitors, and Lanie was perched in my lap, freshly showered, wearing nothing but another one of my white button-downs and smelling like the allure of sex. The actual deed itself couldn’t have been further from my mind, though. Okay, to be honest, it was playing at the edge of my thoughts because that was what she did to me, but I would never act on it.
As much as she was trying to be a real trouper, acting like what had happened with that assf*cker hadn’t affected her, I knew that wasn’t the truth. But I wasn’t going to press her on the subject. She would talk about it if she wanted, and I would listen and offer as much support as I could. Until then, any contact we had of the sexual nature would be by her initiation alone.
“So he said he had access to the contract?” I asked. We were still trying to figure out what the f*ck to do about the situation Stone had created for us.
“Yeah, but I don’t get that,” she said, lost in thought. “You ripped up your copy of the contract, and my copy is still in with my things. So where did he get it? Do you think he could’ve broken in here and made a copy or something?”
“Not likely,” I answered, my fingers casually rubbing circles on her bare thigh.
The telephone rang beside us, interrupting our little brain-storming session, and I answered it. Dez was on the other end of the line, and she asked me to put her on speakerphone so she could talk to both me and Lanie at the same time. It was odd, but nothing seemed normal in our world anymore.
“You’re on. What’s up?”
“Hey, Lanes,” she said in greeting to Lanie. The dull thump of bass music was in the background. She must have been at work. “So I finally figured out where I’ve seen that piece of man meat that was in your office today.”
“Wait a minute, what?” I asked, confused.
“David,” Lanie answered for her. “She saw David in your office earlier and thought she recognized him.”
Well, wasn’t that just an interesting tidbit of information?
“Where do you know him from?” Lanie asked.
“Right here at the club,” Dez answered. “Every now and then he comes in after hours. I’ve seen him when I’ve stayed late to clean up or, um, meet that night’s Mr. Perfect. But never mind that. Your boy sneaks right in the back entrance and disappears into Scott’s office downstairs. It’s usually a while before he leaves, but he’s always toting a little white dust with him when he does.”
“White dust, as in cocaine? Stone’s snorting?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d always played around with recreational drugs when we were younger. I’d assumed that was all it ever had been.
Dez snorted. “That dude’s so thick into it, a big, fluffy cloud probably pops out of his ass every time he farts.”
Lanie rolled her eyes even though Dez couldn’t see her. “Dez, I don’t think it quite works that way.”
“Whatever. I’m just saying. And I know you just rolled your eyes, bitch.”
Lanie giggled, the sound like music to my ears.
And then it hit me like a f*cking lightning bolt. “Scott.”
“What?” Lanie asked, confused.
“Scott would have a copy of the contract as well. After all, he was the broker in the deal. Shit!” I pulled at my hair and let my head fall back with a frustrated growl. “I should’ve known that rat bastard would pull something like this. It’s all about the bottom line for him. I’m sure that if David waved enough cash in front of his face, he’d turn over his copy of the contract in a heartbeat. I didn’t have the slightest inkling they even knew of each other.”
“I really hate him!” The words burst out of Lanie’s mouth.
“Um, hello?” Dez said, reminding us she was still on the line. “What the hell are you two going on about?”
I looked at Lanie, searching her face to see if she wanted me to make something up. It hadn’t dawned on me that she and I were still the only ones who knew about what had transpired earlier that day.
Without taking her eyes from mine, Lanie set her chin in quiet determination and spoke. “David Stone knows about the contract between Noah and me. He made that fact quite clear when he showed up here today and tried to get me to ride off into the sunset with him after helping him take Noah for everything he has.”
Dez gasped on the other end of the line.
“Oh, it gets worse. When I turned down his advances and kneed him in the balls for calling me a whore, he decided getting heavy-handed with me would be a good idea.”
“He did what?” Dez’s voice was shrill with shock. “That son of a goat-cock-sucking whore! I swear to God, I’m going to rip his nuts off with my bare hands and shove them down his throat. And then I’m going to introduce him to my friend Chavez, a big, burly-ass Mexican who’s done hard time at Oswald State, aka Oz, and has no qualms whatsoever about ass-raping another dude just for the fun of it. I hear Chavez has eaten so many Naga Viper peppers that his semen is literally liquid acid. He just might be the reincarnation of Beelzebub, but he’s always been good to me, and I’m pretty sure I can get him to do me a favor. Of course that means I’ll owe him one, but for you—”
“Dez, stop,” Lanie said. I personally thought Dez was on to something and wanted her to set the wheels in motion, but Lanie apparently disagreed. “First of all, Oz isn’t a real place. It was a television series. Second of all, we’re not going to stoop to his level. We need to figure out what to do, so I need you to get serious and focus.”
“You thought I was joking?” Dez asked, but Lanie ignored her.
“Wait a minute,” I said, putting the facts together. “Stone said he had access to the contract, right? Not that he actually had it?”
“Right, and …?”
The answer was simple enough. Money talked. “I’ll pay Scott a visit and offer him more money than David was willing to pay for it. Then he wouldn’t have any proof. We can sweep his legs out from under him.”
“Hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not going to work,” Dez interjected.
“Why not?” I was a bit peeved at the halt order.
“Think what you want of Scott, but he’s a shrewd businessman. You had him pegged when you said it’s all about the bottom line for him, but think about it. Selling that contract to you doesn’t make good business sense. He’d be getting rid of the only leverage he has to make sure you don’t run off at the mouth about a business that thrives only because the discretion is so thick. There’s no way he’s going to hand that contract over to you. However, my gut tells me he won’t hand it over to David, either.”
“No offense, but I’m not sure I want to let the future of Scarlet Lotus be determined by a gut feeling,” I told her.
“Noah, put yourself in Scott’s shoes.” Dez almost sounded condescending. “If word got around that he let a confidential contract like that leak out, not only would he lose his business in a massive raid, but no one would trust him with a deal of any sort again. Not to mention there’s no telling how many hits would be put out on the man just because there would be the potential risk that he would leak identities in an attempt to bargain with the feds. You were there, Crawford. You saw the caliber of people he deals with. They’re some ruthless mofos. Would you risk it?”
She had a point. Lots of points, really.
“So how do you think David is planning on getting a copy of the contract for himself, then?” Lanie asked.
“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say he’s planning on stealing it.”
“Okay, then we just need to beat him to it,” I said, squeezing Lanie’s thigh triumphantly as she smiled down at me.
“Not you,” Dez said. Seriously, she was getting on my nerves with the way she kept throwing up the red lights. “You walk in here and Scott is going to know something’s up. I’ll do it, but I can’t do it alone. Lanie, get your shit together and meet me at Foreplay when it closes. I’ll let you in.”
“No way in hell is that going to happen!” I protested. “I’m not letting her do it, Dez. We’ll have to figure out another way.”
Lanie turned my head toward her and leaned forward. The first three buttons of the shirt she was wearing—my shirt—were open, and her breasts were looming like a carrot dangling in front of a horse’s face. When she tilted my chin up, her lips hovered over mine, enticing me with the sweetness of her breath. “Noah, there’s no other way. We have to do this. I’ll slip in quietly, Dez and I will get the contract as soon as Scott leaves, and I’ll be back in your bed before you even notice I’m gone.”
“What if he tries to—” I started, but was interrupted when Lanie swept her tongue inside my mouth to lightly flick at my own before pulling back.
“He won’t even be there. Besides, Dez will keep me safe.”
I was under Lanie’s spell and closed the fraction of the distance between our lips to tug on her bottom one with my teeth. “Safe and sound?” I asked, my voice sounding less and less like I was the dominant male in the equation.
She pressed even closer to me and shifted her ass over my cock. “Safe and sound. I promise.”
Damn, but the woman knew how to weaken my resolve.
Lanie put her hand over mine on her thigh and slowly started to move it over her creamy skin until it was under the hem of her shirt. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should stop her, but all that was shot to hell when she pushed my hand further until my fingertips skimmed the soft folds between her legs.
“I’ll call you when I’m on my way, Dez,” she said, and then leaned over and pushed the disconnect button to end the call. There was no further discussion. She’d won.
I nudged her hair back with my nose and nuzzled her neck, sucking and nipping at the skin there. Lanie spread her thighs and replaced her hand on mine, urging me even closer until my fingers slipped between her wet lips.
“We shouldn’t do this,” I said against her skin, but I didn’t stop nuzzling or pull back my hand because I was a man and my genetic makeup wouldn’t allow me to. Lanie was addictive.
“You would deny me what I want?” Her hand left mine and opened another button on the shirt until she could pull it to the side to reveal one of her perfect breasts. Then she nudged my head toward her chest.
“Never.” I took the offering, my tongue flicking over the raised nipple before I sucked it into my mouth.
“Make me forget, Noah. Claim me as yours and erase the memory. I only want to remember your touch.”
She needed this, needed me. And I would deny her nothing.
Lanie’s hand moved back on top of mine, and she arched her back, simultaneously bringing her breast closer to my mouth while pushing both of our fingers inside her. She moaned, and I felt my cock twitch at the sound.
I firmly sucked on her succulent nipple, never able to get enough. The woman did things to me, made me lose every ounce of self-control that I fought to maintain. Her p-ssy was so wet and tight around our fingers—soft, like liquid silk. She pushed us deeper, maneuvering my finger so that it flicked back and forth inside her while the palm of my hand massaged her *. Together, we were erasing the blasphemy. This was how it was supposed to be between a man and a woman.
“I want you inside me, Noah.”
I released her nipple and softly kissed it once more before I mumbled against her skin, “Stand up for me, kitten.”
She did, allowing both of our fingers to slide out of her, though she gave a disgruntled whimper. I smiled up at her, loving how cheated she felt. Lifting my hips, I pushed my pants down my legs before kicking them to the side.
When I sat back, I took my hardened cock in my hand. “Is this what you want?”
Her hair fell into her face as she looked at my lap and bit down on her bottom lip, eyeing my cock hungrily. She merely nodded, then straddled me, taking my cock and putting it at her entrance before sinking down on it.
It took some maneuvering and a couple of strokes to get all the way inside her, but I put my hands on her hips and we worked it out together. As she leaned down to kiss me, she moved her hand to the side and flipped a switch, turning on the massage mechanism in the chair. I moaned at the vibrating sensation under my nut sack. That feeling, mixed with the touch of Lanie’s nipples ghosting along my chest, her seductive kiss, and her hot p-ssy clenched around my dick, was almost too much for one man to bear. But bear it I did. It was a delicious sort of torture.
“I love you, Noah,” she whispered against my lips.
“Not half as much as I love you,” I answered. I had no way of knowing if that was true, but I found it hard to believe any one person could love another as much as I f*cking loved her.
She rolled her hips against me, seeking the friction against her *. Her full breasts were right in front of me, teasing, so I pushed them together and took both of her nipples into my mouth at the same time. Pulling at my hair, she rode me hard, which was just the way I liked it. It was when I made a show of scraping my teeth along the hardened buds of her breasts that her head fell forward and her movements slowed.
“That looks so sexy. Feels so f*cking good,” she moaned, moving her hips with more purpose as she grabbed the back of the chair. Lanie only ever used the word “f*ck” when she was pissed or when something I’d done to her felt particularly pleasant. Naturally, I loved hearing it.
Back and forth, she rocked over me, milking me for her own pleasure and giving it back to me tenfold. I was about to lose my damn mind, but managed to stave off my orgasm so that she could reach hers first.
I was rewarded for my efforts when I felt the walls of her p-ssy constrict even more around my cock and she began to move in a deliberate rhythm. Her lips were parted and her eyes were closed as she concentrated on the sensation. She was almost there, about to combust, but she needed more. I knew her body better than I knew my own, so I could read the signs. She needed the man she gave herself to willingly to take control and stake his claim.
“Give it to me, woman,” I encouraged her. “Come on my cock.”
I grabbed hold of each cheek of her perfectly round ass, lifting her and slamming her back down. I forced her hips to roll forward before doing it again and again and again. I could hear her fingers digging into the leather on either side of my head, and then her head fell back and her body seized as she cried out my motherf*cking name with her orgasm.
I didn’t waste a second. There was something I had wanted to do with her since that first day I found her in my entertainment room amidst the chaos she had provoked with the damn remote. I secured my arm around her waist and lifted us out of the chair before carrying her over to the pool table. She continued to roll her body in my arms unabashedly, still milking her orgasm, and the distraction nearly made it impossible for me to walk, but I managed to get her there.
With my other arm I swiped the billiard balls out of the way and laid her down, never leaving that sweet little slice of heaven in the process. Once she was safe, I pulled her hips to the edge, pushed her knees back, and spread her open with one leg in each hand. And then I thrust into her hard.
“Oh, f*ck!” she cried out, and I stilled, mentally kicking myself in the ass for being so rough with her, especially after what she’d been through.
“Shit, I’m sorry, kitten. I … I didn’t mean to.” No apology was going to make up for what I’d done.
“No, it’s a good f*ck,” she said, breathing heavily. “I promise, I’m okay. Better than okay, actually. That felt so incredible. It’s what I need, Noah. Don’t hold back on me. Please.”
I was both stunned and relieved.
“Well, in that case, you might want to hold on to something because it’s about to get so much better.”
Lanie put her arms down at her sides and reached for the edge of the pool table, holding on for dear life. I grabbed her hips once she was secured and let her legs wrap around each of my arms. Then I pulled back before slamming into her again. The test drive proved everything was a go, so I let loose, driving into her furiously and with a quickness that left me panting.
Her breasts bounced to and fro with each thrust and my balls slapped against her ass with each unrelenting drive of my cock. Deeper and deeper I thrust inside her. Lanie got very vocal, her head thrashing back and forth. I could feel the sweat beading on my forehead, but still I continued to f*ck her with reckless abandon.
And then I looked down at where we were joined, watching as my cock slid in and out of her tight p-ssy.
“F*ck, woman.” I growled, unable to look away. “Your p-ssy is so … goddamn … mine.”
My hips slammed into her over and over again, harder and harder, deeper and deeper. My thick cock stretched her tight opening and it was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. The veins on my dick were supercharged with my pulsing blood, and the skin was coated in her wetness, the section that had been inside the firm grip of her p-ssy colored a deep pink from the friction.
Everything that had been building inside me snapped and I shut my eyes tightly to the unbelievable sensation of my orgasm. I growled, feeling my cock throb and pulsate inside her. Slamming my hips into her one final time, I came, spewing my seed inside the woman I would do any f*cking thing for.
Once I’d given Lanie all I had to give, I pulled out of her and loosened my grip on her hips. It was then that I noticed how hard I’d been holding on.
“Shit, I’m sorry. That’s probably going to bruise.” I leaned forward and placed lingering kisses on each red mark like I could actually kiss them and make them better.
Lanie’s fingers went to my hair and I laid my head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat. To my surprise, I found that mine was synchronized with hers. As corny as it sounded, we’d become one. And I knew it was true: no matter what happened with David Stone or the whole f*cked-up fiasco of the contract, nothing was going to come between us.
I meant it when I said I’d do any f*cking thing for her. Even if I had to give up everything, be shamed in the public eye, and steal away with her to some deserted cabin in Alaska so she wouldn’t have to endure the embarrassment of everyone knowing what she’d done to save her mother’s life. I’d do it.
Because nothing was more important than her.
David
Goddamnit.
I checked myself over in my bathroom mirror. My gorgeous face looked distorted, but at least I’d managed to clean off the blood and bandage the open wounds.
They wouldn’t go to the cops. I was sure of it. They’d have to expose themselves in the process, and I was pretty damn sure prostitution and being involved in the human slave trade would carry a much higher penalty in the long run than what I’d almost done.
It wasn’t supposed to have gone down like it had, though.
I’d planned it perfectly, or so I thought. Step one: make my proposition to the whore, threaten to expose their whole sordid affair, and bank on her natural gold-digging tendencies to seal the deal. Step two, my personal favorite: f*ck her blind, let her know what she was missing by dissin’ Big Daddy Dick, and leave her begging for more, all while waiting for Crawford to walk in and catch us in the act. And then the pièce de résistance: sit back and relax while I watched the bane of my existence go all self-destructo with the knowledge that I’d claimed yet another one of his prized possessions for my own.
But my shit had backfired on me. Delaine didn’t accept my proposal, which meant Crawford wasn’t going to see us bumping uglies. I hadn’t figured on there being an actual physical altercation, not that I was sorry for knocking the bitch one. She needed to learn that this was a man’s world and she’d do well to stay in her place. But then Noah had come in and busted my shit up.
“F*cking dick,” I scoffed into the mirror before I walked into my office and poured myself a stiff one.
Swirling the dark amber liquid in my glass, I headed over to the window and looked out over the city. My city. I f*cking owned it, or at least I would.
I winced when I took a drink and the glass made contact with my busted lip. A drop of alcohol landed right on the cut, stinging like hell and adding insult to injury.
“Goddamnit!” I roared, and threw the glass against the closest wall. It shattered, coloring the white paint with sprays of whiskey while tiny shards of glass rained down onto the floor.
I swore under my breath and decided to leave it there for the cleaning crew, then turned back to the window.
What had gone down earlier was the result of poor planning on my part. I should’ve allowed myself a little more time with her. Not that he wouldn’t have wanted to kick my ass even if she had been a willing participant. It’s just that if that had been the case, his fist wouldn’t have packed quite as much punch. Wounded pride and a broken heart are a whole lot easier to deal with than a man with a superhero complex going on a Rambo rampage to defend his territory.
No matter—I still held all the power. Or at least I would before the night was through.
I didn’t have to f*ck his girl to destroy him. I already had that in the bag with the reveal I was planning for the board meeting on Monday. But I did have a point to prove. How many times had I tried to make the dumb f*ck understand that women were only out for one thing? Money. Plain and simple. Gold-digging whores, each and every one of them.
Okay, maybe there was another thing they were out for as well: dick. They liked that shit, too.
When we were a couple of young punks, I’d tried to drill my theory on bitches into his thick skull, mostly because I wanted him to be available to hang with me on the weekends, or just whenever I needed a sidekick, but I believed what I said to be true. I’d seen my father change wives almost as often as he got a haircut. And every one of them left owning a little piece of his fortune—a fortune that should’ve rightfully belonged to me.
When we became adults, it was even more important for my partner to focus. I needed Crawford’s head in the game if we were going to make our fathers’ company soar to heights the old men couldn’t even imagine. If he was all googly-eyed over a woman, a f*cking cunt, he’d be too distracted to put his best foot forward, and I wasn’t talking about the one attached to his third leg, either.
Chasing tail for the sake of getting laid was one thing. Allowing yourself to be p-ssy-whipped was something else entirely.
Crawford hadn’t listened to me. Fresh out of college when his parents died, he had inherited his half of the company and had a gorgeous woman on his arm, and I was all but forgotten. And not just by my supposed best friend. My father had looked at Noah with so much pride and adoration it was almost palpable.
He’d never looked at me that way.
Noah Crawford was a rising star, had everything I didn’t, and I was tired of living in his goddamn shadow.
Why can’t you be more like Noah, David? My father’s voice rang in my ears, a constant reminder that I would never live up to his expectations. I made mistakes; I was young, and I liked to party. But those mistakes were unacceptable to him.
My old man was weak, in my opinion. He shared his company with those f*cking Crawfords when he could’ve claimed all of Scarlet Lotus’s success for his own. The goody-goody Crawfords and their Let’s donate a sizable portion of our profits to charities, give back to the community, do something good with the blessings that have been bestowed upon us.
Pfft. Those weren’t blessings. It was hard work, my father’s blood, sweat, and tears. But he never saw it that way. Truthfully, I think he was secretly in love with Elizabeth Crawford. I had seen the way his face lit up whenever she walked into the room. The bitch had him wrapped around her little pinky, and he’d have done anything she asked of him even though he could never have her.
Which just proved my point about the effect women have on men. And my dad wasn’t even hittin’ that.
Speaking of hittin’ that … I had a date.
I opened another button on my shirt, showing more of my bronzed chest of iron—because that was the way I liked it—and then I grabbed my keys. It was getting late. Scott would be closing up shop soon, and he would be waiting for me with a fantastic piece of ass and a f*ckload of pixie dust. Damn, but I needed a hit of that. Both of them.
And then afterward I was going to borrow that little nugget of gold I knew he was storing in his office. It was nothing but paper and ink to him, but for me, it was the future of Stone Enterprises.
Lanie
Warm water surrounded our naked bodies as we lounged in the outrageously massive bathtub. Noah’s strong arms encased me and I closed my eyes to experience the sensation of the loofah he moved gently over my exposed breasts. My nipples had been in a constant state of arousal since I set foot in that house.
Funny, I had wanted to hate him so much back then. And there I was, hopelessly in love with the man who had purchased me with the sole purpose of having his wicked way with me whenever, wherever, and however he wanted.
The saying was true: sometimes it’s when we stop looking for love that love finds us. And usually it’s the person we least suspect who manages to lasso our heart and turn us inside out.
The Cooch was all for being turned inside out by the Wonder Peen at the moment. Or, for that matter, upside down and round and round. Insatiable hussy.
As if hearing her plea, Noah’s free hand wandered down my side and over my abdomen until his long, thick fingers could delve between the swollen folds at the apex of my thighs to give her a proper greeting. His deliciously scented breath ghosted over my neck before it was replaced by his hot, wet mouth.
Noah’s tongue was sinfully talented, his lips gifted with the ability to put all my senses on high alert. His teeth scraped my skin teasingly and I lifted my arm to wrap it around his neck. The loofah tumbled from his hand and he cupped my breast, his fingers gently rolling and tugging at the nipple. I could feel his hardness pressed to my lower back while the fingers between my legs explored every nerve ending within his reach. The delicious pressure of his lips, tongue, and teeth against the crook of my neck joined forces with the soft moans at my ear and drove me mad with need.
“Noah.” My voice was more like a breathless plea.
He never faltered with his manipulations. “Tell me what you want, kitten.”
The Cooch pulled out pen and paper and started making a list, but I ignored her. There would be so much more time for all the ways she could find for him to worship her later. I wanted to do something for him.
“You.” I turned in his arms. “I want to taste you.”
Noah groaned when I got on all fours between his legs and eyed him suggestively while licking my lips. The bathwater rocked with my movements, sloshing against the muscular plains of his abdomen. “Far be it from me to deny you anything you want.”
He used the brute strength of his arms to lift himself until he was sitting on the ledge. Water cascaded down his body as he took his dick in one hand and began to stroke it teasingly. Another long arm stretched toward me in invitation. “Come, Lanie, suck my cock.”
His words reminded me of my very first night there, the night he’d sat on his couch completely naked while smoking a cigarette. The skin on my arms pebbled from the memory and a pathetic, wanton mewl escaped my lips as I inched closer to him. When I was within reach, he buried his hand in the hair at the back of my head and guided me to the colossal appendage he had so graciously aimed toward my mouth.
Noah’s hand squeezed the base of his cock and a sexy groan escaped his throat when I took him into my mouth. I circled his tip with my tongue before engulfing as much of his length as I could fit into my eager cavern. My lips stretched around him when he brought my head closer. His hand fisted my hair and he lightly pulled me back and forth, back and forth. When he propped his foot up on the side of the tub and leaned back against the wall to watch me suck him, I suddenly turned into quite the exhibitionist.
I released him momentarily and dipped my head between his legs. Keeping my eyes on his face, I licked his balls, taking them into my mouth one at a time to gently suckle him.
“Goddamnit,” he moaned, and then his mouth dropped open and his chest began to rise and fall more rapidly.
My tongue made a path from the nook of his balls over his fingers and up his long shaft. Noah pushed my head down on him more forcefully and I could feel the crown of his cock at the back of my throat. My teeth lightly scraped against his smooth skin as he pulled me back and then pushed me forward again. His eyes were trained on my lips and I began to bob my head, sucking him deep. I swallowed and relaxed my throat to take more of him, moaning around the thickness in my mouth like it was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. Because it was.
“F*ck.” His voice was almost a whisper—a rough, barely controlled whisper. “You have no idea how good you look sucking my cock. Harder, kitten. Suck me harder.”
I sucked so hard my cheeks hollowed out. So hard you couldn’t have convinced me his cock wouldn’t be one giant hickey by the time I was done. Noah groaned and the muscles in his arms, chest, and abdomen clenched. Faster, harder, deeper I took him while he watched with rapt fascination.
I could’ve died a happy woman with his cock in my mouth. Death by cockstrangulation.
He moaned my name and then his face twisted up. “Stop, woman. Stop.”
I kept going.
“No … f*ck …” He growled and cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to release his cock. “I want to be inside you when I come.” He was breathless, the veins in his neck taut and his eyes dilated, hungry, commanding. “Turn around and hold on to the ledge.”
I mentally joined the Cooch in a cheer on the sidelines when we found out she was getting called in on the play.
I turned and spread my legs so he could fit between them comfortably, and I might have thrown in a back arch for good measure. When I felt his breath on the back of my neck, his chest pressed against my back, and his cock at my entrance, I nearly orgasmed on the spot.
His mouth was at my ear and I felt the tip of his cock slip between my folds, teasing me, never filling me with what I so desperately needed. I shifted my hips, trying to align my opening with his dick, but he pulled back, causing me to whimper at the loss of contact.
His breath caressed the shell of my ear with a voice that was deep and menacing, but I couldn’t fear him. “Which entrance should I use, Lanie? This one?” he asked, moving the head of his cock over my opening. “Or this one?” He slid the tip over my a*shole and applied a slight pressure.
“Whichever one you want. Just like you won’t deny me, I won’t deny you.” My last experience with the backdoor entrance had been uncomfortable, even painful at first, but I still wanted to try it again. And I had indeed said I wanted to do something for him, so if he wanted to f*ck my ass, then I was going to let him.
Noah chuckled in my ear, and even though I couldn’t see his smirk, I knew it was there. “Is that so? So brave, Lanie. So giving. I love how willing your body is, how shamelessly you react to my touch. I can’t wait to get my cock in your delectable little ass again, and I will. But this time, I think I’ll go … here.”
The thick head of his cock pushed into my p-ssy, stretching and filling me as he sheathed himself completely. I moaned and arched my back so I could rest my head on his shoulder. He cupped my breast in one hand while his other flattened on my stomach. Then he pushed on my abdomen, forcing me to bend ever so slightly, but changing the angle significantly enough that it caused me to gasp.
“Easy, kitten,” he breathed into my ear. “Goddamn, you feel so good.”
“You don’t feel so bad yourself,” I managed.
Noah moved inside me again, slowly rocking in and out while he lavished the back of my neck with openmouthed kisses. My head lolled to the side when the hand on my stomach moved further down and his fingertip began to massage my *. I moaned again because it felt so incredible, and he pressed his chest even closer to my back.
I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to bend back over, so I did, holding on to the ledge so that he could have his wicked way with me.
And have his wicked way with me he did.
His lips moved over my bare shoulders sending a tingling feeling dancing across my skin. Removing the hand from my breast, he laced his fingers through mine at the ledge of the bathtub, the slight weight of his body on mine engulfing me so perfectly. The other hand moved back to my abdomen and held me there as he thrust in and out with greater purpose. His mouth was at my ear and I could hear every little grunt, feel every exhale of hot breath against my skin with each surge forward.
“I need to be deeper in you, Lanie. Deeper than I’ve ever gone before,” he mumbled into my neck.
His hand slid down my body until he reached the inside of my left thigh. He pushed against it, urging me to lift my knee until it was perched on the side of the tub. Then he straightened and slowly thrust inside me.
“Ooh …,” I moaned at the sensation.
“That’s it. Right there,” he said as he rotated his hips against my ass, causing another moan to spill from my lips. “You like that?”
“God, yes.” I could feel his cock swirling inside me, pushing against my walls, and I arched my back even more to give him better access. “I can feel you … your cock feels so … unngh.”
“Yeah, I like that, too,” he said as he pulled back a little and pushed back into me.
He made short, quick thrusts, each one more glorious than the last. Everything inside my body bunched up. It was on high alert, threatening to explode with the glorious pleasure only he could give me.
“Harder, Noah. F*ck me harder,” I said to spur him on.
He did just that. One hand wound itself in my hair and he pulled back on it, forcing me to lift my head while he f*cked me like a madman. Long, hard, fast strokes brought his groin against my ass. Skin slapped against skin as his fingertips dug into my hip. My chest constricted, my abdomen coiled, my * throbbed, my teeth clenched, and my fingers gripped the edge of the tub until my knuckles were white.
And then everything let loose all at once and I cried out with an orgasm that rocked my very foundation.
“Noah … ohhh … Noah,” I moaned as my heart hammered in my chest.
“I know, kitten,” he grunted, still thrusting ferociously from behind me. “Right there. I’m going to come. I’m going to …” He let out a growl as his hips slammed against my backside and he held them there for just a second or two before continuing his assault again with sporadic and irregular thrusts.
And then finally he stilled. It was like the calm after the storm clouds pushed away to reveal the sun once more. Blissful, peaceful. Contented.
His body slumped as he pulled from me, his forehead pressed against my back. “Woman … you’re going to be … the death … of me,” he panted.
Him? I was pretty sure I was in danger of suffering a massive heart attack, judging by the way my heart was trying to burst out of my chest. But boy, what a way to go. It ranked right up there with cockstrangulation.
Noah refused to let me go to Foreplay to meet Dez alone; I refused to let him go anywhere near the club and jeopardize the plan. I also turned down his suggestion that Mason or Samuel accompany me. However, I managed to get him to consent to my taking Polly instead.
I was pretty sure it was because of her mad driving skills. And by mad, I mean the chick was nuts behind the wheel of a car, and we’d be lucky to make it there in one piece. But, according to him, Polly was a force to be reckoned with when push came to shove. Maybe that was because she was pacing back and forth, throwing air punches in the general direction of all the internal organs in a man the height of David Stone. She was amazingly accurate, reeling off the name of each one as her fist found where it would be. It scared me just a little.
So there we were, parked across the street from Foreplay in the dark, waiting for Dez to call with the all-clear. The building looked deserted and lifeless, as far as I could tell. The parking lot was just about empty, and the neon sign had long been extinguished.
Polly was decked out all in black, including a pair of black combat boots. What the hell she was doing with combat boots in her wardrobe was a complete mystery to me. The thought crossed my mind that this might not have been the first secret mission she had been a party to, not that it would surprise me.
“Is your phone even on?” she asked for the cajillionth time.
“Yes, Polly, it’s on.”
Her leg bounced up and down like she’d had way too many cups of coffee. Also, I noticed she’d developed a serious case of shifty eyes. I swear, you would’ve thought we were casing the joint to rob it, knowing full well a whole SWAT team was waiting in the bushes.
“Check again,” she said, because apparently she thought I was an idiot who didn’t know how to work a stupid cell phone.
I rolled my eyes with an annoyed sigh and looked down at my phone, even holding it up for her inspection. Just then it vibrated in my hand, causing me to jump a little.
It was a text from Dez: It’s a negative on the EPT.
Yeah, that would be the all-clear we were waiting for.
“Let’s go,” I told Polly.
We got out of the car, both of us being careful to shut the doors as soundlessly as we could. Hunched over, we made our way across the street and through the parking lot, all sorts of stealthy-like. The Mission: Impossible theme song kept playing over and over in my head, but I knew Tom Cruise didn’t have jack squat on us. Once we reached the front of the club, we pressed our backs against the wall and I lightly tapped on the door. First two raps, a pause, and then three more.
“Is that the code you guys agreed on for the knock?” Polly asked in a whisper.
“No. We don’t have one,” I said with a shrug. “I just thought … Oh, shut it. I’m nervous, okay?”
Polly let out a squeak of a giggle and then hurriedly covered her mouth to stifle any more sounds. That was about the time Dez opened the door.
“What the f*ck are you asshats doing?” she asked with a stern whisper, then turned her scowling face on Polly. “Are you trying to get us caught? This isn’t a slumber party, Gidget.”
Polly dropped her hand and did her best to keep a straight face. “Sorry.”
“Cute outfit,” she said as she looked Polly over, her tone of voice taking a sudden turn into Valley Girl land, which Dez never did. Polly was definitely rubbing off on her. I’d point it out later and watch her get all defensive because it would be funny.
Polly beamed at the compliment. “Thanks! You too,” she said, looking her over in turn.
Dez was dressed in much the same way as Polly. In fact, it was the same outfit she’d had on when she’d shown up at Noah’s to “kidnap” me. I was pretty sure it wasn’t what she’d worn to work.
“Did you change?” I asked her, because that wasn’t at all like Dez, either.
She gave me a well-duh look and stomped one foot lightly. “I couldn’t exactly wear the same thing for both work and this, now could I?”
I rolled my eyes in Polly’s direction. “Jeez, you are never allowed to talk to my friends again. You’re like a damn disease.”
Dez looked stunned. “What are you talking about?”
“You caught Polly’s girly cooties. No worries—we’ll get you fixed up with one quick visit to the prison on conjugal visit day.”
Polly did the giggle-snort thing again, and then Dez moved aside to usher us inside.
“Is he gone?” I asked as the door closed behind us.
“I think so, but he always leaves out the back door, so I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You didn’t check?” The incredulous tone was evident in my voice even though I was still whispering. I held up my phone to show her the text she’d sent. “You said you’re not pregnant!”
“Well, I might be a little bit knocked up. Those tests aren’t always accurate.”
I was going to kill her. I was sure the murderous glare in my eyes made that fact perfectly clear, but my death glare—which I’d practiced for years to get just right—never had any effect on my best friend.
Dez shrugged like it was no big deal. “F*ck it. If he’s here, I figure we can knock him out.”
I pulled her in close so she could hear me. “Um, Dez? These outfits might make us look like super-badass ninjas and all, but um, we’re not.”
“Now what are we supposed to do?” Polly’s shoulders slumped in defeat. I knew it was killing her. Proper planning defined her life, so to have to wing it meant certain disaster in her book.
I threw my shoulders back and straightened to my full height. “We’re going to go find out if he’s here, and then we’re going to get that damn contract,” I said assertively, taking control of the situation. “Now let’s get our ninja on.”
The club was dark, though the emergency exit signs provided a minuscule amount of light. Of course Dez knew the layout like the back of her hand, and I knew the direction to the basement from my last trip there, so we were good to go.
As we descended the stairs, I almost expected the club’s doorman to be waiting at the bottom with that damn clipboard that made him think he was a god or something. But he wasn’t there. In fact, it was completely dark, so dark we had to trail our hands along the walls for some navigational guidance. Before we got to the end of the hall, I could see light filtering out from under a door and hear music coming from inside the room.
Scott was still in his office. And then we heard voices coming from the back of the building, headed our way.
Polly grabbed the back of my shirt in her fist, and I did the same to Dez in turn, slightly yanking her back.
“Someone’s coming! Now what?” I whispered, hurriedly.
Dez yanked my hand off her shirt and turned on me. “Don’t get your thong in a twist, Lanes, and shush before they hear you. I’ve got this covered. Come on.”
Polly and I followed her down the hall, and we managed to make it inside a little closet that was right beside Scott’s office without making too much of a ruckus. No sooner had we gotten inside than the other voices stopped outside the door.
“Have fun, mate,” a male voice said.
“That’s Terrence,” Dez whispered.
“Who’s he talking to?” I strained my ears, but all I heard was the opening and closing of Scott’s office door.
“So what? We’re just going to wait here until they leave?” Polly asked.
We were packed in the tiny space like sardines, but it wasn’t like we had any other options. “Yeah, pretty much so,” I said.
“Not necessarily.” Dez maneuvered herself so that she could turn toward the wall that was on the opposite side of Scott’s office.
“What are you doing?” I asked when she started fidgeting with something that looked like a sticker on the plaster.
She pulled at it and then a beam of light shot through a hole. “I might have had a little safeguard placed in here in the event that some hottie was down for some kinky f*ckery in the form of a closet quickie.” She shrugged. “This way I could check to make sure the boss man wasn’t looking for me.”
“You’re an evil genius, do you know that?” I asked, impressed with her ingenuity. “A total slut for gettin’ down and dirty in a supply closet, but a genius all the same.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said with a cheeky grin. “The best part is that these walls are paper thin, so the challenge to stay quiet while fireworks explode from my girly bits is particularly erotic.”
I shook my head at her and leaned toward the hole. When I saw who was in the other room with Scott, I gasped and shot up straight, bonking Polly in the nose in the process. “Holy crap!”
Dez cupped her hand over my mouth because my whisper was definitely in danger of becoming a whole lot more than that.
“Christ!” Polly touched her nose gingerly. “You mind telling me why you’re trying to break my nose?”
I pulled Dez’s hand from my mouth. “It’s David!”
Polly dropped her hand, her nose forgotten. “That a*shole is here to steal the contract!”
I heard voices, so I leaned back over to look again, wanting to make sure I hadn’t been seeing things. Sure enough, David was sitting on the leather couch next to Scott’s desk. His face was puffy and bruised from his recent beating, courtesy of one Noah P. Crawford.
Scott’s desk, by the way, was loaded down with blocks of what looked to be cocaine.
“Oh my, Jesus! Dez, give me your phone,” I told her, reaching blindly behind me.
“What? Why?”
“Just put it on video and give it to me. Hurry!”
Dez slipped her phone into my hand and I put the lens over the hole, making sure to get a good view on the phone’s screen. Dez wasn’t kidding; those walls were paper thin. I could hear every word they were saying.
“What the hell happened to you?” Scott’s voice had a bit of humor to it. I sort of wanted to laugh, too.
David put his fingers to the cut over his swollen eye. “Kickboxing accident. I missed the bag.”
“And what, kicked yourself in the face? A lot?”
“Shut up. You got another shipment of coke so soon? That’s risky,” David said, changing the subject. He sounded none too happy.
“It’s not a new shipment. There’s been an increase of in-house requests. Both from those little snot-nosed brats upstairs and the gentlemen down here looking to score a whore and more.”
“You’re expanding to college kids? That’s not something we’ve discussed. Last I checked, we’re partners on this.”
“We are. That’s why I called you in.” Scott stood and walked around to the front of his desk, leaning against it and crossing his legs at the ankles. “So let’s talk about it.”
“Nothing to talk about. It’s too risky a move. Some punk kid rats and we’re going down like the Titanic. Not smart. Call it off.”
The right side of Scott’s mouth drew up and he shrugged. “I suppose you’ve got a point, but it does make good business sense to offer the coke as a package deal with the girls. Those rich bastards aren’t blabbing about shit, and you know it. They’ve got too much to lose. A two-for-one will help drive up the starting bid on the auctions.”
“Now that I can get on board with,” David said with a politician’s smile. “Speaking of good business sense, my friend the senator will be coming to the next auction. I can’t stress enough how important it is that we make him happy with the goods, both the flake and the ladies. How’s the search for the twins going? Any luck?”
“Yep, that’s reason number two for calling you in. Trust me, I am about to make your day, your week—hell, your whole year.” Scott reached over to his phone and pushed a button, leaving the speaker on.
Terrence picked up on the other end. “Yeah, boss?”
“Show the ladies to my office, T,” Scott told him, and then disconnected the call with another push of the button.
After a few moments, the office door opened again and two leggy redheads—twins—sauntered into the room. They had identical physical attributes from what I could tell, and wore identical short dresses in silver. Dang, even their saunters were identical.
“Be still, my beating heart,” David said, adjusting the front of his pants. He flashed them that toothy grin he apparently thought was sexy but which was just creepy even without the Elephant Man mask he was sporting. “Hellooo, ladies.”
Scott went over to the girls and stood between them. “Meet Izzy and Belle. They’re perfect, right?”
“Hell, yeah. The senator is going to be very satisfied with this package deal. Gotta admit, I wouldn’t mind sampling some of that for myself.”
“I thought you might, and really, there isn’t any reason why we can’t. After all, I did say I was going to make your day.”
David’s lascivious gaze raked over the girl on the right. Down, up, and back down to her legs again, like he was doing his damnedest to undress her with his eyes. He didn’t even bother to look away from her thighs when he said, “Why don’t you come over here and wrap that pair of milky ways around my head, sweetheart?”
Oh, gag. Fortunately for him, his horrendous pickup line wouldn’t stop him from getting laid. With a few bucks in their pocket those girls would be good to go, but I was pretty sure they were getting paid more than a few bucks.
“Izzy, I want you to be really nice to this gentleman. Really, really nice,” Scott said, taking her hand and directing her toward David.
Izzy stopped in front of him and Belle walked up behind her sister to unzip her dress, letting it pool on the floor at her feet. Izzy was completely naked underneath. Judging by the look on David’s face, I’d say he about lost his load in his pants right there.
“Goddamn, girl!” David took Izzy by the hips and buried his face at the apex of her thighs. She giggled and ran her hands through his hair, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back. I didn’t blame her about the closing-her-eyes part. It’d be bad enough to have to feel it—I certainly wouldn’t want to have to watch the man-beast as he ate her.
Scott laughed and walked over to his desk to pick up a couple of baggies of coke and returned to give one to David. “Here, Romeo. Let’s party.”
I should’ve turned away. What was about to go down in that room was disturbing on so many levels, but I couldn’t look away. I was a very sick individual. It was like watching a freak show. I knew it was going to give me the heebie-jeebies, but I had to see it.
Belle was naked now, and both girls were sprawled out on the couch with David and Scott moving their slimy mouths and hands all over them. The girls didn’t seem to be complaining, but … gross! I watched as David opened a baggie and shook the contents along the length of Izzy’s abdomen. Then he took a straw and snorted the line-shaped powder. Izzy moaned at the same time, and that’s when I saw David was pushing three fingers inside her while Scott looked on.
“Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Polly’s nose scrunched up. “Ew! What the hell are they doing in there?”
“They’re snorting coke,” I whispered, almost more to myself than to Dez and Polly. I was completely in shock at that point. “And … and … getting their freak on.”
“What? David and Scott?” Dez shoved me over so she could get a look at the screen on her phone.
“Damn, bonchickawahwah,” she giggled. “Hey, I know those two chicks. They’re the new girls. Guess now I know how they got promoted to assistant managers so quick.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Polly said, but it came out as more of a question than a statement.
I shook my head. Polly squeezed in on my other side to have a look for herself.
I’d known David and Scott were a couple of sleazeballs whose behaviors were a special brand of unscrupulous at best, but I never imagined I would ever witness it for myself. For as long as I lived, I knew I would never be able to get that image out of my head. Not even if I bleached my brain, which was looking like a pretty good idea.
“Did Noah do that to his face?” Dez asked, and I nodded with a proud smile. “Damn, I think I’m in love with that man. Don’t tell him, though, because then he’d want my body so bad, and that would be embarrassing for you and me both.”
She went back to watching the show via the screen on her cell phone, which she’d taken from me, by the way. “Say what you want, but this is some sexy-ass shit. I’m saving this for later,” she said, still recording.
That was disturbing to the nth degree, but so like Dez to want to add to her own personal porn collection. She liked the real stuff, none of that fake Smuttywood acting. I knew this because I’d stumbled upon her collection while looking for a decent movie to watch at her apartment one night.
We stood there for a few moments longer, because hell, what else were we supposed to do? I’d moved away from the phone because I couldn’t stand to watch any longer. And then I thought I heard a sound from the other room. Curiosity got the best of me, so I pressed my ear against the wall and listened while Polly managed to nudge her way in between me and Dez until we were tits to tits to do the same.
Someone was moaning and groaning, and then, “Yeah, you love the Big Daddy Dick, don’t you? Suck it harder, baby. I’m almost there.” David’s smug voice was disgustingly strained right before I heard another sort of distorted howling sound that could’ve been either one of the chicks or Scott for all I knew. Either way, it made my skin crawl.
Polly looked a little green in the gills. “Oh, that is just so wrong.”
“What are they doing now, Dez?” I whispered across the space. Of course she was still watching, the hussy.
“Duh,” Polly said. “They’re coming.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not that. I mean, now.”
“No, she’s right,” Dez answered. “They are coming. At the same time. How’d they manage to sync that up?” What was worse was that her brows were furrowed like it was a math problem she was trying to solve. I’d bet good money she’d go home and work on the solution to that equation later. After a moment, she said, “Okay, so Sluts-R-Us just went into the back room, which happens to be Scott’s personal bathroom. My guess is they’re going to scour some of that spunk funk off each other. Tweedledick and Tweedlecum are firing up the puff-puff-pass.”
I sank down onto the floor and let my head fall against the thin wall that stood between me and that stupid contract. “This is going to take forever. Noah’s going to freak out and think something went wrong if I don’t get back soon.”
“Wait a minute, hon. Don’t go getting all dramatic yet,” Dez said, waving me over to see what was happening in the next room from her phone.
“We should probably take advantage of the time we have with them,” Scott said, stroking his cock unabashedly until it started to harden again. As quick as that turnaround was, that coke must’ve been laced with a male enhancement drug. “p-ssy like that doesn’t come along every day, you know.”
“Hell, yeah!” David crowed. He picked up his pants and fished his cell phone out of the pocket. “I’ll be there in a minute. I’m expecting a call from the senator, so I should probably check my messages real quick.”
As soon as Scott had joined the twins in the bathroom, David put his phone back in his pants and rushed over to Scott’s desk. Taking another look over his shoulder, he opened one of the drawers and pulled out a manila folder. He grabbed the paper inside, placed it on the fax machine, and dialed some numbers.
“No, no, no …,” I chanted, knowing full well that piece of paper was the contract. My contract.
Polly growled. “That bastard!”
Said bastard stood there drumming his fingers impatiently while waiting for the machine to finish up. Once he got the receipt, he shredded it and then replaced the paper and file folder in the desk before practically skipping off into the bathroom to join the orgy no doubt already in full swing.
I hit my forehead against the wall. No way would I be able to keep him from using the contract as leverage against Noah now.
“Cheer up, Lanes,” Dez said, a little too chipper. When I furrowed my brow at her crazy talk, she waved the phone in the air. “David Stone is in cahoots with Scott Christopher in both the drug and sex trade. It’s all right here. I think that makes for a damn good bargaining chip, don’t you?”
In that moment, Dez was the sexiest beast I’d ever seen. If she wasn’t my best friend, I probably would’ve thrown her against the wall and shoved my tongue down her throat. She was right. We had all the proof we needed to bring David and Scott down. I wondered how well that would sit with Scott and all of his very influential clients. Not too well, I guessed.
“You should still get the original contract,” Dez said. Since when had she become the voice of reason? “I know he’s already faxed it, but one contract floating around out there is a hell of a lot better than two.”
Good point.
“I’m going,” I said, reaching for the door.
“Wait a minute!” Polly whispered harshly, putting her hand on my arm to stop me. “What if you get caught?”
“But if I don’t go now, I might not get the chance to get the contract at all,” I reasoned. “I’ll go inside real quick, and if I don’t hear the shower, I’ll slip back out and we’ll wait it out a little longer.”
“Let her go,” Dez told Polly. “We can watch from in here, and if she gets into trouble, we’ll mount up and ride to the rescue.”
“Um, okay.” I could hear the reluctance in Polly’s voice. “But if anything happens to you, Noah’s going to go apeshit on me, so please be careful.”
“Of course.” I nodded nervously and then turned the doorknob very slowly.
Once in the hallway, I tiptoed along the wall to the door to Scott’s office. I checked the handle, finding it unlocked, and then pushed the door open slowly. My ears picked up the sound of the shower running and I could hear male and female voices from the other side of the bathroom door, though I couldn’t tell which belonged to whom.
Hurrying over to Scott’s desk, I opened the bottom drawer, where I’d seen David put the folder earlier. And there it was, filed under T for Talbot. I pulled it out and flipped it open to grab the contract.
A smile like the Cheshire cat’s spread across my face once I had it in hand, then I replaced the folder and tiptoe-ran back across the room just as the shower shut off. I was careful not to make any noise when I slipped out of the door and pulled it closed behind me. Dez and Polly were already waiting for me in the hallway.
I held up the contract and Dez did the same with the phone. I swear, I was just about ready to kiss her on the mouth. With huge grins on our faces, Dez and I did our victory dance. It had been perfected over decades of friendship and really was just us shaking our butts from side to side in well-choreographed synchronization. Polly bounced up and down on her toes while giving us silent applause. And then we headed for the stairs to make our stealthy escape.
Mission accomplished. Maybe not the mission we’d set out with, but accomplished nonetheless.